Last November, Marisa, Kelly, and I took to the blog to talk about what TV items we were thankful for in 2014. One of mine was David Letterman, and the way his retirement had brought about a renaissance of his whole Dave-ness. Since he announced his retirement a year ago, I’ve DVRd (and not missed) an episode, and it has been wonderful. There have been so many posts on the interwebs by seriously famous and funny people, and underlying most, if not all, of them is recognition that it’s just not going to be the same without Dave.

So many people have shared about watching Dave for the first time, and how it changed their lives. I was born May 1st, 1980, and Dave started his morning show 50+ days later on June 23rd, 1980. So I didn’t see that; that didn’t change my life. My prime David Letterman years were when I was in high school and college, so mid-late 90s and early 00s.

The final episode of THE LATE SHOW WITH DAVID LETTERMAN will air tonight, and the significance of that moment hasn’t been lost on his fellow late night hosts.

While James Corden was speaking with reporters earlier this week to promote his new show, THE LATE LATE SHOW — where he joked they were celebrating 30 episodes of the show compared to Letterman’s 30 years — Corden spoke frankly about the impact Letterman’s show had on him, and getting to follow his final run of episodes…

“Stephen Colbert is one of the most inventive and respected forces on television,” said Leslie Moonves, President and CEO, CBS Corporation in a statement. “David Letterman’s legacy and accomplishments are an incredible source of pride for all of us here, and today’s announcement speaks to our commitment of upholding what he established for CBS in late night.”

David Letterman will be leaving LATE NIGHT, he announced during a taping of tonight’s show.

“The man who owns this network, Leslie Moonves, he and I have had a relationship for years and years and years, and we have had this conversation in the past, and we agreed that we would work together on this circumstance and the timing of this circumstance,” Letterman told the audience. “And I phoned him just before the program, and I said ‘Leslie, it’s been great, you’ve been great, and the network has been great, but I’m retiring.’

“I just want to reiterate my thanks for the support from the network, all of the people who have worked here, all of the people in the theater, all the people on the staff, everybody at home, thank you very much. What this means now, is that Paul and I can be married.

“We don’t have the timetable for this precisely down – I think it will be at least a year or so, but sometime in the not too distant future, 2015 for the love of God, in fact, Paul and I will be wrapping things up.”